Creative Commons photo by Alexandre Ferreira on Flickr
UPDATE: NZ Parkour Association established; offering classes in Wellington.
Ever been wandering around town and seen a group of youngsters behaving like a bunch of naughty monkeys? Whaddya know.. they’re probably doing parkour.
Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or or “free-running” or l’art du deplacement (“the art of displacement”) is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body.
Founded by David Belle in France, parkour focuses on practicing efficient movements to develop your body and mind to be able to overcome obstacles in an emergency. It is also practiced by many as a form of entertainment or as a pastime.
As I hinted above, there’s a thriving parkour scene in Wellington; especially in and around the urban/recreational areas of the waterfront and Civic Square.
Here’s a couple of clips of some pretty shit-hot local practitioners:
Luckily our guys are a bit more skillful than this lot of unfortunates:
And so on and so on. There’s much more where that came from (Youtube, of course).
And if you’re keen to try it out, perhaps you could keep an eye on Meetups for parkour in Wellington.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
i went and im going again ok…
agreed. Might want to change the comment about you guys being more skillfull than them. Some of those runners in the clip above ( Not even including david belle ) are some of the best in the world. Not to put you down. I’m sure your all very skilled and I want to be a free running expert too one day but I’ve hurt my self as many times as I’ve done something cool
Note that one (if not more) of those clips is of David Belle himself, and what you didn’t see above was him getting up and walking away perfectly fine.
Is there anyone doing free running in auckland? would be keen to check it out. am n ex gymnast…..
ok im heading down to welly soon.
i meet you guys there then..
hay some guys at my school told me bout parkour it seems kool but all of the guys at ma school that do it a bogus i need help to find some m8s that are good and can give me a few tips by the way im 12 and i wellington
Jemma: get in touch with the Wellington Circus Trust, and ask them to hook you up with Tiago Miranda (that’s him in the first clip). http://www.circus.org.nz/about/contact-us/
ok up a bit it says 3:00pm but i might go down before and warm up.
i may see you guys there…
Tiago tells me civic square on Sundays — not sure what time though.
Hey guys, so I’m growing a lot of interest in PK, namely through the pop culture of numerous video games, movies and youtube clips such as the ones you’ve uploaded, and am moving to Wellington next year to study.
Doing animation: I’d really like to get a feel for flow of movement and all that, PK would help with that, also the fact that it’s totally awesome.
It looks like a ton of fun.
Unfortunately I’m very unfit, but am starting to get myself into shape, is there any advice you pros would be able to give to someone who is essentially just stepping into the sports scene with an interest in taking on PK?
My email address is blightedart@gmail.com
Thanks guys, and it’s good to see PK taking form in NZ.
im thirteen and my cuz is 14 and we just started. we were gona go down in wellinton and jam but we need help we could learn with ya?
are yous guys meeeting on sunday?
yea im in the same boat as braydon,im 17 nd jst been based at trentham military camp 4 the next year nd a half and wanna get into parkour, ne1 that can help with that,email me grimfire_142@hotmail.com
cheers
i wanna do parkour but i can’t find a place in wellington that does parkour for 12 year old girls
HELP ME!!
Hey guys,
Let me just say that what you do is awesome.
Im wanting to learn it too Im 18 but i feel too old as most of your comments are from 14/15 year olds. haha
DO you know anyone who i could run with in Wellington? I just moved here and am a student. You can email me at aka-ray@hotmail.com
Thanks, Cant wait to start.
to repeat what max said:
if anyone’s interested in more about parkour (and the related discipline of free running) the NZ website is at http://www.nzparkour.com . You can contact us Wellington guys through there
That’s the best site to follow what’s happening with parkour around New Zealand.
heya watup do u guys still meet every sunday i just moved to wellington from blehneim i uest to realy be into freerunning but lost it due to injury. getting back into it know and was just hoping there still a crowd for it. email me at straydwarf@gmail.com
good to c that u guys have a good town for it to itd also be great to have some one show me some cool spots to
yo man i am 14 i want to come train with you guys but can i email me at cow.go@hotmail.com PLzz ty
Heya, I’m a film student at South Seas Film School up in Akld and am wanting to make a short film Documentry on Parkour in NZ for my end of yeaar project. Do you know anyone up n auck I could meet up with?
In my week of shooting the film I can travel around nz, but need some ground work done up in auck b4 I head off anywhere else to shoot.
Email me at catmacky@hotmail.com
Thanks for the help
Peace and keep it up
Sup, this is Chad from le Parkour Aotearoa (it names me in the vid, but I’m the one in shorts, singlet). There is a fairly good core of guys in the Welly scene now and we meet every sunday around 3pm either in Civic square or by the lagoon, and anyone is welcome to come watch or play or join in, whatever. We’re all about trying to build a good rep for PK in NZ and the more people that get into and learn about it the better. Also been shooting a whole lot more footage last few weeks so keep an eye on http://www.youtube.com/user/Parapraxis30 and heres the latest vid so far aswell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Yur6bjaYQ
Peace out and hope to see some of you cats out n about
Some of those bails.. ouch..
but then again iv had my fair share.. so have my mates
but yeah. we tring to get pk meets in chch.. doesnt seem to be a big thing down there.. tho hoping to change tht
Hey I’m from the Wellington parkour community, along with Chad who commented up above a few months ago. This article is from 07, but people are still finding this right?
So if anyone’s interested in more about parkour (and the related discipline of free running) the NZ website is at http://www.nzparkour.com. You can contact us Wellington guys through there
“There’s more after the jump..”
Ah, I see what you did there
Some of those wipe-outs? Ouch.
Wow, that’s Wellington Library etc,
I have seen people doing this about town, and couldn’t believe I actually saw groups practicing across from the police station etc.
Do you guys mix in gym work too? Like gymnastics and flexibility etc. I can see you’d have to be pretty fit at the least.
I s’pose I could get in touch through Vic Uni or something?
the man.. is there a large parkour community in wellington? in 14, and wanting to learn. thx
hey, my names kyle, im 15 and i live in tauranga in the bay of plenty, i am a huge fan of free-running, i can run up a few 1st story walls on to roofs, jump large distances, climb polls, i am also extremely flexible, and i am just over 6 ft.
Do you know of any parkour groups in the bay of plenty where i could go with a group and learn more stunts and stratagies?
cheers
Hey There
I am from a team of 12 Free-Runners who train in Auckland City every saturday from 10:30am – 4:00pm, so we’d be more than happy to help you out with you doco.
Here’s our youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/AucklandFreeRunner
Here’s my email address
gemstonepictures@hotmail.com
Cheers,
Ethan
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